Wednesday, March 18, 2015

My Digitally Fabricated World

By Don Olsen

Issue 13- Continuous Liquid 3D
Printing

Welcome back everyone. This week
I have something pretty exciting that was shared with me and so I will pass it
on to all of you. A new 3D printing option is being developed to replace the
current extruded plastic method. A group of scientists from the University of
North Carolina have developed a continuous liquid 3D printing interface. What
this means is that unlike conventional 3D printing methods, which use a heated
extruder and platform to slowly add heated plastic layer by layer, this new
method will use a platform and pool of molten material and "pull" the
printed object out of the liquid material. This new method of printing utilizes
a projector under the pool of liquid that will rapidly project section cuts in
ultra violet light of the object. This process rapidly solidifies the plastic
as the upside down platform raises the object out of the pool of material.
Interestingly enough this process was inspired by the Terminator movie series,
where the terminator reforms from a pool of molten metal. There are a number of
benefits to this new printing method as well. By utilizing molten plastic there
is little to no wasted materials in the printing process. Since there is less
need for bracing or rafts used to stabilize current conventional prints more
plastic is saved and can be used to create more prints. Having worked with
conventional 3D printers a huge benefit is less moving parts. This could mean
greater life spans for these machines and less issues. Beyond the platform
everything else on the entire machine is stationary as you can see in figure 2.
This is a huge benefit as most conventional 3D printers have a series of
motors, plastic pulling systems, moving platforms, and other moving parts
making them easily prone to having a multitude of issues. The last benefit is
probably the most significant, time. Continuous liquid 3D printing is able to
accomplish what takes hours in conventional printing in just minutes. The
reason for its extreme efficiency is the method it uses to solidify the
plastic. Conventional printers add one layer of plastic at a time where
continuous liquid printers print and entire layer in one section flash from the
projector. Though these printers are still very much in the testing phase they
are an obvious step in the right direction. Please check out the video linked
below. This is very much so a piece of sci-fi fiction becoming a reality. Till
next time keep fabricating.